Blood spatter is called bloodstain pattern analysis. It is used to solve crimes. There are three types of bloodstain patterns. Passive bloodstains are created by the force of gravity. The types of passive bloodstains are passive drops, drip pattern, flow pattern, and pool pattern. The next type of bloodstains are projected bloodstains. These occur when energy has been transferred to a blood source. The last type of bloodstain is transfer/contact. These are produced when an object with blood touches an object that doesn't have blood. They also break it down into low, medium, and high velocity impact spatter. A bloodstain pattern analyst is usually able to tell many things from blood spatter:
- Movement and direction of a person or object while shedding blood
- Position of a person or object
- Movement of people or objects after bloodshed
- Object used to create the pattern
- Direction a stain was traveling when deposited
- Sequence of events that took place